The owner of a Chinese takeaway which remained open throughout the lockdown has said the Brits ‘love of Chinese food’ kept him afloat.

The Zen Zen Takeaway based on Redlam, Blackburn stayed open throughout the pandemic with customers ordering dishes from as far as Clitheroe and Whalley.

Tassadaq Ali said, “It has been a tough few months for us. When the lockdown happened there were only three Chinese Takeaways open in town. We were serving our regulars as well as new customers from some surrounding towns. It is surprising how far people will travel to get their Chinese Food fix!

“The British love their Chinese Food and it was wonderful to be able to serve people with their favourite meals during a crisis.

“I guess people still need to spoil themselves once a week and at the beginning we would get some wonderful messages from people who were surprised and grateful we were open.

“Public health is important and we followed government guidelines to ensure our customers received their much loved Chinese’’.

The Zen Zen is one of the town’s oldest Chinese Takeaway.

“We took over in 1998. People can be quite choosy about their Chinese meals and you will find loyal customers who will only order from us and nobody else.”

A regular, Samantha, said ‘This is one of best Chinese and their salt’n pepper ribs with egg fried rice is my favourite. Takeout has become the norm for most families and thanks to Zen Zen’s we never missed out on our takeout’’